Where and who are all the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community college librarians? The BIPOC community college librarian is often disembodied, and their work runs the spectrum between the visible and invisible. The added labor of being the “only” adds an extra layer of emotional, physical, and cognitive work that often goes unrecognized. The relationship between librarians and student success in community colleges has been thoroughly researched and assessed. However, the role of the BIPOC LIS community college librarian and library worker is missing from research. Some of the failures in the community college landscape today are the lack of BIPOC workers in the library department, emotional taxation, extra labor, structural racism, tokenistic legacies, and removal from the academic research process. BIPOC librarians’ work and labor in community colleges should be researched, presented, and valued. This book explores and examines critiques, narratives, and practices of BIPOC community college librarians’ lived experiences and how they shaped their work and lives.
Amanda M. Leftwich is the Student Success Librarian and Instructor at Montgomery County Community College (MCCC). She received her M.S.L.S. from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and M.A. in Human Development from Fielding Graduate University. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Human Development at Fielding Graduate University. Her research focus includes fandom, mindfulness, reflective practice, communities of practice, and effective peer review within librarianship. Her teaching focus includes accessibility, embedded librarianship, and collaboration with faculty through liaison programs. In 2018, she became the first Faculty Diversity Fellow at the Libraries at MCCC. She has presented her research at national and international conferences on wellness in librarianship, focusing on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) librarians and library workers.
Eva M.L. Rios-Alvarado has worked as a community college librarian since 2014. The “Libertad” (freedom) in her name expresses who she is as a scholar, educator, and community member. She is engaged in research and practices which come from long traditions of liberation and resistance. As a practitioner of Capoeira Angola, the Afro-Brazilian spiritual, healing art, since the early 2000s, Eva continues to learn how to weave community and legacies of resistance as integral places and spaces into her education work and beyond. She has a B.A. in Geography, M.S.(LIS) in Library Information Science, and is working on her M.A. in Latin American Studies.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Kel Hughes-Jones
Foreword
Lizeth Zepada
Introduction
Amanda M. Leftwich and Eva M.L. Rios-Alvarado
Section 1
Honoring Our Communities, Building Our Own Practices
Breaking the Bamboo Library Ceiling: Asian American Women’s Path to Community & Technical College Library Administration
Alyssa Jocson Porter, Jessica Koshi-Lum, & Gerie Ventura
Communities of Practice: Responsibility and Opportunities for Shared Praxis at Community Colleges
Evangela Oates
Unique Communities of Practice through Library Work: A Dialogue on Building Connections at a Community College
Amanda M. Leftwich, Fran L. Lassiter, Adriene Hobdy, & Stephanie Nnadi
Section 2
Honoring Our Stories: Frameworks, Identities, and Narratives
Accepting My Own Worth: Reflections of “Imposter Experience” as a Latina Librarian in Academia
Sally Najera Romero
Creating a Sense of Belonging for BIPOC Students in a Community College Library
Andrew Kuo
Student Success and Equity in the Library: Looking at Our Community Campus Library Collections
Edeama Onwuchekwa Jonah
Testament of Perseverance: A Journey Through Tenure
Shamika Jamalia Morris Simpson
Section 3
Honoring Our Labor, Reflections on Our Work
Learning From the Brown Body: Xicana Feminism in the Community College Library
Eva M.L. Rios-Alvarado
And Now We Are Strangers to Each Other: Reflections of a BIPOC College Librarian
Dele Chinwe Ladejobi
Racelighting: Understanding BIPOC Community College Library Workers’ Experience with Questioning Their Own Realities
Terezita Reyes Overduin
About the Contributors
Index
